Regional Workshop on Combating Violence Against Women in the Arab Region

The Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-WOMEN), and the League of Arab States (LAS) organized a regional workshop to support National Women Machineries in the Arab region in their efforts in addressing violence against women. The workshop, which was held on 18-19 September 2018 at the United Nations House in Beirut - Lebanon, aimed to highlight the role of international and regional mechanisms and bodies specializing in women’s issues, and their impact on the development of policies, strategies, national legislations, and standard services to address violence against women. Discussion topics included the role of international mechanisms in providing increased protection to victims of violence against women, the importance of gender-sensitive national legislations, and the various services that contribute to addressing violence against women including outreach and awareness-raising services or victim support and protection services.

The workshop sessions also covered the regional frameworks that address violence against women, as well as the needed national data to deal with this issue, and the importance of establishing partnerships with national stakeholders to address violence against women.
 
This workshop comes at a time when states in the Arab region stepped up their efforts to combat violence against women in various initiatives such as amendment of legal provisions, service development, or establishment of databases and partnerships with various stakeholders. Thus, the renewed importance of documenting these efforts and sharing lessons learnt, which comes in line with the role of ESCWA, UN-WOMEN and LAS in their attempt to support Arab states’ efforts and deepen knowledge and skills through the exchange of experiences among countries as stipulated in the recent recommendations made during the 37th session of LAS Committee on Women number 37 D and recommendations made by ESCWA’s 8th Committee on Women’s recommendation (5 G).